My Memorial Day post!

Hi everyone. I didn't have time to write yesterday as we were in the car for 6 hours coming back from Nor-cal. I spent the weekend up north so it was eventful and also quite sad. Heather's mom passed away on February 19th so a lot of the weekend was spent in remembrance of her. It was a great weekend either way. We were able to go out on the boat with friends and really relax and enjoy our time. I thought I would write about two people who I really respected and who have passed on today in honor of Memorial Day.

The first one is my grandpa, Bus Briscoe. He was the most amazing man I have ever known and truly showed me love in a way that I never knew it before. He was honorable, hard-working, smart, and sweet and made me into the woman I am today. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have even eaten somtimes. I love you and miss you papa!

The second one is Heather's mom, Sherrie Short. Yesterday we were able to go and visit Sherrie at her gravesite and spend a bit of time there. Here a few pics of that

Sherries Grave

Heather at Sherrie's Grave

Sherrie was like a second (or first really) mom to me. She really cared about my life, prayed for me, appreciated the good things about me, and encouraged me in all of my endeavors. Even moreso, she was an amazing Christian woman and phenomenal mother to my friend. We miss you Sherrie!

~E~

Just all kinds of stuff

Hey everyone, this post is going to be a hodge podge of different things that have been going on in my life. You all know that I was responsible for taking care of a certain turtle this past week and I wanted to finish up Arnold's photo shoot first. He is magnificent and although my time with him is through, I think we bonded. Here are the last photos of him so you can enjoy!

Here is Arnold as I presented him with a rose, my gift to my little guy.

Here is Arnold digging in to his delicacy.

Almost done....

When he is done eating, he basically just turns and walks away! Ha ha

So my week with Arnold went very well and he really relaxed me and I think made a point about my life and slowing things down a bit.

This week I have also started reading a book called "Women who love too much" at the suggestion of my therapist. It's really good so far and I am enjoying it. I really think I needed to read it. This weekend was filled with fun stuff and unexpected events. On Friday I did something I have needed to do for some time. I had a relaxing evening at home for the most part. I ended up studying with Heather at Denny's for a bit but mostly just stayed home and chilled.

Saturday morning was a great surprise as I got to have breakfast with a great guy and we went to Tower Records together also. We had a good time although our time was short. I completely honor the moments he has and really respect the time he puts into me. Later in the afternoon, I supervised the installation of our new marble living room floor. It is absolutely gorgeous and I hope you all get to see it. Thanks to David and Enrique for doing such a marvelous job!

Saturday night, Heather and I had a great dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory (one of my personal favorites) and then headed to a Karoke bar to watch her friend Mike compete in a contest. He did a great job and really put effort into his performance. Some of the performances were really funny. Mike did "Shameless" by Garth Brooks and wore a cute cowboy hat with I sported at one point in the night. (See below)

Sunday was filled with Church, a personal finance class, lunch at the Olive Garden with a friend and then off to work. Richard is out on business this week so it's my personal duty to care for Chris and the home. I am excited to have some time to run things a bit but also I really appreciate when Richard is around. He is such a great boss!

Tonight I got to see Hannah and she seems to be relatively calm even though her wedding is not even a month away. I am in the midst of finishing up details of being a bridesmaid for the first time. I had a fitting for my dress this week, will order shoes on the first, will plan out all other things and be happy happy happy for my friend!

Overall, things are really going well. I am learning more every day to be myself and let people love me for me! I have much to offer to the right people in my life. God has such a distinct call on my life and it's time I lived worthy of that calling. Have a great day and I hope you enjoyed the blog and pix!

~Erica~

Arnold, the calendar turtle

Gosh he is cute...enjoy

Here he is on the move and man is he speedy for a turtle.

Here he is eating his yummy lettuce close up!

And far away....

And finally..smiling for the camera (yes I am obsessed)

He makes me smile so much. Today was an interesting day in my growth. I tried on my dress today for Hannah's wedding and I am getting excited about being able to put on feminine clothing and not feel out of place. I am hoping I will feel 100% confident at some point but today was huge because I reached about 40% confident. Yipeee...I am becoming a girl.

~Erica~

My New Boyfriend Arnold

For those of you who didn't read my last post, first of all, Shame on you! Secondly I am tortoise sitting this week for friends of mine who own a beautiful tortoise named Arnold. He is my new boyfriend. I figure it's a great relationship because he is always glad to see me, comes with a home, and eats out of the palm of my hand, literally! I am in love with him peeps! I thought I would tell you all that I have spent a day with him and he's amazing and that I will be seeing him again today and that I have decided to add pix of him today! Enjoy his hottness!

Here he is first peeking his head out of some greenery to say hello!

Here is one where he is eating a beautiful rose and thinking of me! lol

Have a great day everyone!

~e~

Erica's adventures with Arnold

Hi everyone. I hope you are all doing well this beautiful Saturday. I have had a very eventful day considering my life is pretty boring 99.9% of the time. Today in Southern California it is so beautiful that I got myself a cute little sunburn which usually isn't my cup of tea but oh well. I am very happy with how the day went and all of the healing and changes God is bringing about. This morning I went to an event that I might not have attended a few years ago because of lack of confidence. I know you are all thinking..."Erica, not confident?" but it is so. I went to hang out at a Fireman's Pancake Breakfast to meet up with a friend of mine (kind of a blind meeting) and it went very well. We, heather and i, stayed for about 3 and 1/2 hours and we enjoyed our breakfast, a live band *lol*, and the company of some attractive Fireboys! YAY!

All of this ended at about 1:30 when we got on the freeway to get to Anaheim for Hannah's bridal shower. If you all know Hannah, she is marrying the best man in the world for her, Aaron on June 17th. I am honored to call myself a bridesmaid in this beautiful wedding. The shower went very well and it was really great to see Hannah get excited about her big day. Overall it was a great time and included chocolate covered strawberries which are my personal favorite!

Things in my dating life could be better but you know, you have to date a billion frogs before getting your prince sometimes. I have dated my fair share of really great men and really big frogs and let me tell you..I will be so grateful when I finally meet my prince. Until then, I am having fun with some frogs..I prefer if they are turtles though.

Speaking of turtles, my life for the next week is going to be so exciting because some friends of mine are going out of town and have asked me to ...yes...you guessed it...turtle sit. They have a tortoise and I get to take care of him while they are gone. I am stoked! His name is Arnold and he is amazing. I am very excited and will probably write about our adventures over the next week.

Well, I should close this post and put some lotion on my horribly burnt cleavage..yep, bad place for a burn. I love you all and thanks for stopping in.

Much love to you!

~Erica~

An officer and a gentleman

This post isn't about the movie from the 80's with Richard Gere so no fear for those of you who got a little nostalgic. Today I am writing about the new man in my life. Most of you know that I have been single for approximately 2 years with the exception of a few weeks in February that don't even deserve my attention. I am still very single but at the point in my life where I truly appreciate it and what it did for me. I have learned so much through this singlehood that I could never have learned attached to a man. I am now ready to be in a relationship of some sort and just really enjoy it at the pace that it happens. I think before I was always in a hurry and it made things really rough. I know that I have done my fair share of bad relationship acts and so have the other men in my life but that is over. Today, I am enjoying my dating relationship and really appreciating the man in my life.

I am not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about the man I am dating just because he is a police officer and must maintain a certain degree of discretion but I will say this...He is amazing. He is kind, gentle, passionate, driven, successful, organized, loving, protective and my personal Mr. Fixit. I call him a variety of names but most affectionately...Officer Hottie and Officer Dreamy! I am proud to be dating him and it is simply that...a very happy Dating relationship.

I am enjoying my acceptance into graduate school and just having a personal celebration every single day. I want to just mention also that two of my very good friends, Heather and Josh are graduating this weekend from Vanguard University with their Bachelor's Degrees. Heather's is in Liberal Studies and Josh's is in Business so I am proud of them and know that they will go far.

I guess that is the news for now. I have started a new process with my therapist and I will open up a bit about that once we are into it. Have a great day and hug a policeman today! :)

~Erica~